Over the past several decades the diaper market has shifted from substantially cloth multi-piece reusable diapers to one piece plastic and paper single use disposable diapers. The shift to single use disposable diapers has occurred primarily because of the convenience, fit, sanitation, and absorbency they offer. Disposable diapers, however, have a significant negative impact on the environment because a) they are the fastest growing substance in landfills b) they remain intact and do not decompose for several hundred years and c) they pose a significant risk of contamination to our nation's ground water.
While several reusable diapers have been recently introduced in the market place to compete with single use disposable diapers, a convenient, leakproof, sanitary, fitted, one piece reusable diaper is not yet available. Reusable diapers have been described in detail in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,119 (Hookano) issued Jul. 16, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,672 (Wippler et al.) issued Dec. 3, 1991. The Hookano patent describes an all-cotton I-shaped diaper with elastic material around the leg openings of the diaper. Though this design improves on the traditional rectangular single layer cotton diaper, the problems of diaper leaking remains. The Wippler patent discloses a reusable, generally rectangular diaper comprising absorbent inner and outer layers with a liquid impervious layer between the inner and outer layers and a removable absorbent insert placed in opposed pockets carried by the inner layer of the diaper. Disadvantages of the Wippler diaper include chafing of a baby's skin caused by the edges of the insert pockets and dislodging of the removable insert as the baby moves.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a reusable cloth diaper that has the convenience, leakproofness, absorbency, sanitation, and fit of a disposable diaper.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a reusable cloth diaper that has the convenience, leakproofness, absorbency, sanitation, and fit of a disposable diaper yet retains the advantage of efficient washing and drying along with the environmental neutrality of cloth diapers.